Trial by spin

The trial by spin and doctored media which Jason Azzopardi has been subjected to should open eyes to not just the immense power of the Labour spin machine but also the sheer inadequacy of the Nationalist party machine.

PN have never learned from Labour. There is of course the sheer bulk of Labour supporters with their television set always on One TV. The Nationalists never get that kind of loyalty. The viewership numbers confirm this. One gets more than double viewers than Net.

But then One TV is always fresh in its programme offering, with many young people bringing an air of freshness while Net gives the impression of having been taken over by the same group of rather elderly presenters with a perpetual contract.

The same goes for the printed media with the same commentators saying much the same things week after week.

Party leaders come and go but these people remain forever.

And that is only the first thing that must be said. With such an inadequate media, PN can never hope to challenge LP.

The Jason Azzopardi slaughter shows up another big inadequacy: the party does not have a core leadership. On the contrary the core is very much a collection of individuals with the only thing binding them together the shared fight to oust Adrian Delia. There is no central party core with common resources, strategy and delivery.

Consider Labour faced with a spike in Covid infections and deaths, a former minister and deputy head held overnight by police investigating his past.

The same goes for the person who until some months ago still wielded more power than most ministers.

These two detentions were then buried deep down on the evening news that many may even have completely missed them. Just as they may have missed the news that Roberta Metsola had been unanimously chosen as the European Parliament's First Vice-president. Not a bad record for TVM's Head of News and the head of the Editorial board, both women.

Instead of which we got dollop over dollops about Jason Azzopardi, his trip to Tel Aviv, his failure to find a hotel room (has he never heard of the many search engines like hotel.com?) and his asking the Hilton people in Malta to find him a room.

He says he did try to pay but found that the tab had been taken by the Hilton Malta people.

The more Dr Azzopardi protested his innocence, the more he sank. To which his former wife added fuel laced with venom with details how he said he wanted to spend a night in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre when it turned out he had taken his girlfriend along (to the Tel Aviv Hilton, presumably, not to the Holy Sepulchre).

By the end of the week, Jason’s name had become toxic and not even his self-suspension from his parliamentary role and a sort of apology seemed enough.

One notes he does not seem to have taken the lead in questioning Chris Cardona on Friday, unlike previous sittings. This self-suspension gambit seems to have suddenly become popular in times of stress.

All Azzopardi's vociferous protestations are falling on stony ground and the defence put up by party leader Bernard Grech seemed rather perfunctory.

This was self-inflicted and has seriously damaged the cause most dear to him – the defence of the memory of Daphne Caruana Galizia. You would have never found her cadging a Hilton room. Nor was her personal marital life, with all the ups and downs of marriage, clouded by similar shenanigans.

As Daphne herself used to say in similar crises, if you have to admit to anything, do it yourself and do it before others do it for you.

Politics is many times a very dirty game and Malta is no exception in this regard. Caesar's wife and all that. Sheer courage is not enough. What is good in a law court may not be that good in the political arena.

Which may be why the prince of the courts, Guido de Marco, never made it to the top of the party and of the government while Eddie Fenech Adami, who was not a brilliant lawyer became party leader and later prime minister.

He was never a lone wolf and his first achievement was to gather round him a core group which led the party to so many achievements.